This invention relates generally to methods and apparatus that provide automatic notification of machine malfunctions.
Operators of significant equipment or processes need warning of equipment or process malfunction. Such equipment can include machinery in power plants, oil refineries, pipeline pumping stations, manufacturing facilities, and any other appropriate applications. Known threshold-based alarms can be used, and such alarms provide an operator to use remedial tools and procedures to correct malfunction conditions. However, alarms based on parameter thresholds may not be timely enough to allow an operator to use such tools and procedures optimally in all conditions.